So I finally gave in and I'm watching The Wheel of Time on the mother's Amazon Prime.
I've enjoyed it thus far. Season Two is far more exciting than Season One, naturally, since the latter had the utterly unenviable task of setting up all the main characters and the general world; but I was delighted by the fact that in the very first episode Rand wears a woolly jumper.
The costumes in general are just excellent, really. There's the inevitable leather waistcoats and standard medieval fantasy outfits, but Season 2 in particular have really pushed the boat out with the Seanchan and I'm totally in love with Cairhien:
And I love Sharon Gilham's inspiration for the designs:
Gilham cites the cultural influences in Cairhien being Japanese and French. She notes, āI gave all the cultures inĀ The Wheel of TimeĀ a color palette as well as a set of silhouettes which made them instantly distinctive and different from each other. In this case I combined Japanese kimono shapes with exaggerated skirts with full petticoats in the style of traditional French costume.ā
The diadem indicates Moiraineās social standing, while other crowd members will wear headdresses reminiscent of French traditional headwear.
Nerdist: GET AN EXCLUSIVE LOOK AT THE WHEEL OF TIME SEASON 2 COSTUME SKETCHES; written by Amy Ratcliffe
It's bizarre; in my day-to-day life I really don't care much about clothes or fashion, but in fantasy or science fiction it's the make or break for me. Do I believe that people in this culture would actually wear these clothes, or are they just meant to populate a background? But again, right from the get go, Rand was wearing a woolly jumper. Matt was wearing what, to my eyes, was basically an ankle length cardigan. We get to see Anvaere putting on each piece of her outfit, showing us how it all works. Suroth wears layers! So many layers of robes!!! Most certainly I believe that these characters would actually wear these clothes.
